Patrol bill blocks city

Whispers have long circulated in Newport Beach that the city has plans to take over the Harbor Patrol from Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Now a piece of state legislation on the Assembly floor could keep harbor patrols firmly under the county’s control.

Assembly Bill 2873 has raised hackles among city and county officials, who claim it specifically targets Orange County and Newport Beach.

“Why should Sacramento dictate what we do here?” asked Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Moorlach. “I’m worried it creates more mandates than we can manage — it’s basically a turf war.”

The bill would block any agency in Orange County from taking over harbor patrol duties from the sheriff’s department unless it were able to provide the same manpower and training the sheriff’s department can provide.

Keeping the patrol of local harbors under the county’s control and out of the hands of municipalities like Newport Beach is a matter of cost and better security, said Assemblyman Jim Silva (R-Huntington Beach), who co-introduced the bill along with Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim).

“Most people feel it is a regional area the county should be paying for patrolling the harbor,” Silva said.

Silva moved to become a co-author of Solorio’s bill after the Huntington Beach City Council unanimously voted to support keeping Huntington Harbor under the county’s jurisdiction. The bill is a resurrected version of the failed Assembly Bill 1597, which would have required sheriff’s departments across the state to provide harbor patrol services. The revised version of the bill would apply only to Orange County.

Both Bludau and Moorlach said there are no specific plans for negotiating a Newport takeover of harbor patrols right now. Tensions arose between the sheriff’s department and the city last year after county officials, including Moorlach, expressed interest in making a harbor patrol swap.

No official financial plans for the potential swap were ever proposed. In response, the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, a sheriff’s department labor union, began a public relations campaign against a jurisdiction swap that included mailers and newspaper ads in Newport Beach.

City officials in Huntington have shown no interest in taking over patrolling the harbor there, so AB 2873 specifically targets Newport Beach, Moorlach said.

“It’s extremely offensive,” Moorlach said. “We’re one of a few unique counties in California that has coast line, and there’s no reason for [Solorio and Silva] to be a carriers of legislation like this. I doubt [Solorio’s] district has very many boat owners.”

The bill eliminates any incentive for Newport to take control of patrolling the harbor because of the huge cost of matching the manpower and training of the sheriff’s department, said Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau. The Orange County Sheriff’s department is one of the largest in the nation.

“We don’t know why there are any special circumstances that Orange County should be singled out if the county wants to contract with someone else without the state mandating them,” Bludau said.

“We think the bill is really being pushed by the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs. It doesn’t make good sense from a law enforcement standpoint.”

Silva accepted a $1,500 campaign contribution from the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs in May last year, state election records show. Campaign disclosure records show no donations from the group to Solorio in the past year.

Silva said he had not been influenced by the deputy sheriffs union in any way.

“That is one gigantic lie — that is a lie,” Silva said. “John Moorlach should have made sure he had the finances in line. This was a money grab from the county to try to take money from the cities. Newport Beach has not even signed on because it wants to wait to see what finances are.”

Calls to the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs and Solorio were not returned Thursday.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.